Skid steer loaders are a commonly used vehicle for many industrial, agricultural, and landscaping operations. A skid steer loader is typically a relatively small four wheel vehicle which is steered by braking or driving two wheels on one side of the vehicle, while reversely driving the wheels on the other side of the vehicle. Two laterally spaced loader arms are mounted on the rear of the vehicle to swing upwardly and downwardly and, when the arms are down, their forward ends extend downwardly in front of the vehicle.
A number of attachments can then be coupled to the ends of the loader arm to make the skid steer applicable to many different types of applications. For example, a bucket is commonly provided to dig, dump, and transport materials such as dirt. Similarly, the skid steer can be adapted through various attachments to act as a forklift, back hoe, ground preparator, and the like.
In order for the skid steer to clean and sweep a given surface, an attachment known as a rotary broom can be attached to the front of a bucket also provided on the loader arms wherein the rotary broom is mounted for rotation within a housing pivotally attached to the bucket. When the loader arms are lowered, and the skid steer moves across a surface, the broom engages the dirt or other material and forces it into the bucket. The arms can then be raised and the bucket can be pivoted downward to allow the collected debris to be dumped at an appropriate receptacle.
With many prior art rotary brooms, chains are provided to attach the broom housing to the loader arms such that when the bucket pivots downward, the broom housing is maintained in position and therefore does not interfere with proper dumping of the debris from the bucket. While such a system effectively maintains the broom housing in the appropriate position and prevents forward rotation thereof, when the loader arms are raised and fully rolled back above the vehicle, the weight of the broom housing will tend to rotate backward, and the chains offer no resistance to such movement. The broom housing can therefore rotate backward and forcefully impact the skid steer and potentially injure the operator thereby, or can even overbalance the entire skid steer causing the skid steer to tip over and again risk injury not only to the skid steer itself but the operator as well.
It is important to understand that while skid steer loaders are identified herein as the predominate vehicle to which this invention is directed, it can be employed with equal efficacy to other types of vehicles having vertically or arcuately movable loader arms.